Taylor James, the London-based creative production studio (www.taylorjames.com), has released a cutting-edge one shot TV commercial combining striking photorealistic CGI with live-action. Commissioned by GlobalHue (USA), the campaign for Bermuda Tourism is currently being aired in the USA as part of the company’s advertising crusade to attract visitors to the island.

The campaign, which is currently being broadcast to the US market, features both the use of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) and live action shots, creating the 30 second fly-around advert of the island. The recent project marks a crucial milestone in Taylor James’s long-established career, who is also celebrating its 10th year later this month. The creative studio has generated photo-realistic work for iconic brands worldwide and only recently transitioned into live action, making the advert a landmark project for the company.

US-based advertising agency GlobalHue, specialists in multi-cultural campaigns worldwide for brands including Wal-mart and Chrysler, commissioned Taylor James to work on the project. Taylor James, having previously applied its 3D expertise to another international campaign for Tourism Ireland, applied the same technical skill to this campaign, creating a map detailing the different recreational attractions and landmarks of the island.

The award-winning company appointed the help of another London-based film production company Flynn Productions. The company specialises in creating content on all platforms, including: live action, animation, photography and design work. Both teams were present on location to gather the necessary images and film, the latter mostly done against a blue screen for the live action plates. By utilising both CGI and live action technology, Taylor James was able to seamlessly integrate the different aspects of the advert showing it in one complete camera move.

Glen Taylor, Managing Director at Taylor James, who was also Director on the shoot, described the complexities of combining location-based live-action with CGI: “It was extremely important that we got the images of the setting right- we needed to know what the ins and outs of the island looked like so that we could transcend this into CGI whilst maintaining the beauty and original features of the island. We wanted to create something fun and stimulating that engaged the viewers, so we tried to capture the shot with one camera move- instantly drawing the viewer’s attention to the different activities on the island. Emma Comley, the producer on set, and I went over first and decided on the locations for the shoot.

“The second time I went over with the rest of the CG team we took a location scan. This meant that when we returned to London, we already had the animatics from Bermuda so when it came to building the imagery around the live action shots we had already worked out all of the camera angles. The next big step was the actual filming which took around 10 days- this is where Flynn’s expertise on set came into play and really helped build on our team’s expertise and vision. With two thirds of the advert done completely in CGI, it was crucial that Taylor James’s technical team was present during filming and we got what we needed to complete the job. Most people on set had never used CG before so it was important to me, as a Director on set that we stayed true to our vision and our client’s goals.”

Logistically, it was a very demanding task as much of the imagery was captured through photo-mapping which allowed for the 3D imagery to be built on using 3D-Max and Vue software. However, this also proposed a problem for the team at Taylor James and overcoming file size and detail within existing software proved challenging. “Building the imagery uses a huge amount of data and the overall technical structure involved in to make it seamless is also very difficult,” says Taylor. “Blending in and out of live action and using different software programs so they match seamlessly with the 3D was a constant challenge for our team, however, we managed to get it all done in one complete camera move.”

Taylor James has produced iconic work over the years for some of the world’s leading brands, including: Mercedes, Motorola, Heineken, and Evian. The move into live action signals further growth for the company which now has a 35 strong team covering expertise in all areas of creative production comprising of CGI, retouching, photography and live action with the ability to deliver results on multi-platforms.

Mr. Taylor continued: “This has been a great project for Taylor James. Working with live action and film has always been an area of interest and it has been a great way to demonstrate the potential of CGI. It would’ve been great to have carried the ad further, to cover not only TV, but print and digital demonstrating the broad spectrum of CG work.

“At Taylor James, we make sure we hit the high standards that the industry sets for us and have continued to move with the times. If you don’t stay ahead with technology and follow as opposed to innovate you will get left behind very quickly. A decade ago we just did print work and gradually moved through the motions into retouching, photography, CGI and now live action. The move into live action has been a much welcomed one and we hope to continue doing projects like Bermuda that go on challenging us.”